The tunes, no matter how well produced, will "not sound good enough" for the average person. the podcast/stream is in mono and only 32 kbps ( BTR in the past have even kept my shows at a measly 16 kbps! That was when they were an hour or longer)

Let's go back in time.

It was mid or late 1984 and I learned of a local college radio station that played underground metal and punk. Brian Tailor's ARGH ROCK , also known as AGGRESSIVE ROCK, on CKLN 88.1 FM every Tuesday night at 11 p.m. for one hour.

There wasn't much of the polished heavy metal-type stuff I heard on Q107's Friday Night show at midnight with 'the Bird', or CHUM-FM's (104.1) Saturday night Metal Shop from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Brian played what was hot, what was raging, just like dj's from cities in the USA. An even mix of classic Hardcore punk, crossover, death & thrash metal, and even some black metal (at The Record Peddler where he worked, and spun records there also, he would point out black metal bands that were ripping off HC riffs).

YOU have NO idea what a hassle it was tuning in CKLN!

Even though the station was downtown, and I was only at the farthest border of Parkdale, it was more static than music. I usually couldn't tune it in, unless I stole my father's radio at night after he went to bed, as it had better reception.

Even doing that, depending on the conditions/weather outside, it still meant songs coming and going in waves every 5 or 10 seconds. Pretty frustrating, but it didn't matter. It was important I hear what all this new music was. I had bought Kerrang a few times, but almost none of it was played on ARGH ROCK.

Sure Motorhead was a given, but Brian played the obscure stuff that was barely mentioned or reviewed.

When he debuted SLAUGHTER's Bloody Karnage demo, my world was really changed. I had already started to get into VENOM and bought RAZOR'S Mini LP, but this thing called a "demo tape" opened the world up further.

There were these photocopied magazines called "fanzines" that featured bands that refused to do what major label record companies wanted them to do

These bands played it faster, louder, uglier and meaner! and wimps could just fuck right off!

The radio signal was weak, but hearing brand new bands was totally heavy and blew me away! like Toronto's SACRIFICE demo, crossover bands like S.O.D. , D.R.I., SACRILEGE UK, punk metal like WARFARE, or hardcore like POISON IDEA, MINOR THREAT.

That is basically the story.

Eventually the radio station CKLN increased their power / improved their signal.

IF anybody listens to the 'poorer' quality of blogtalk radio or other similar podcasting websites, and can get excited hearing something, like they do from a weak AM or FM radio signal, then they can understand what it was like for a bunch of us back then.

When I would get home after buying a record that was played, then it really was awesome! As much as I'd think what a great riff or cool singing from the radio show, it was a million times heavier hearing the best sounding version possible (and it is the same these days, with poorer sounding mp3's compared to vinyl / PRO tapes / cd's).

It probably was the same all over North America with other punkers and metalheads trying to tune in their local shows.